• Funerals in the Later Heaven
  • Gim Hyun-chahn was a monk at Chung-nyun Hermitage of Geum-sahn Temple. One day, Sahng-jeh-nim asked him, “Do you want an auspicious site for your grave?”
  • “That is one of my lifelong dreams,” the monk answered.
    “Trust Me,” Sahng-jeh-nim said, “and wait.”
  • When Sahng-jeh-nim asked the same question of Gim Byung-ook, he answered, “That is what I truly wish for.”
    “Trust Me and wait,” Sahng-jeh-nim said again.
  • A few years had passed without Sahng-jeh-nim mentioning the subject
  • when one day Byung-ook asked, “When will You give me an auspicious grave site?”
  • “What do you mean? I gave you one a long time ago.”
  • When Byung-ook inquired further, Sahng-jeh-nim simply said, “I have already given you a site. Its qi allowed the birth of the son you had wished for.”
  • For Byung-ook, not having children had been a source of grief. After Sahng-jeh-nim promised him the grave site, a concubine bore Byung-ook a son.
  • Realizing Byung-ook felt something lacking, Sahng-jeh-nim explained, “In the Early Heaven, the funeral custom has been to bury the deceased. In the Later Heaven, the funeral will be conducted without burying any bones.”
  • 10 When questioned by Hyun-chahn, Sahng-jeh-nim replied, “You have returned to secular life, and now you have a wife and a son. This happened because your grave site has bestowed good fortune upon you.”
  • 11 Sahng-jeh-nim said this because after Hyun-chahn had been promised an auspicious grave site, Hyun-chahn had retired from being a monk, gotten married, and had a son.
  • Greed for Land
  • 12 “Do not be greedy for land. Those who are too greedy for land become serpents after death.
  • 13 Be good at heart. Paradise is always within you.”

  • (JSD Dojeon 3,90)




    No Records.